He saved me as I saved him
by iroha56
Summary: AU: Naruto is being bullied at school ever since his best friend/first love left him. He meets this strange guy who kind of looks like that person he had loved so much. Will that strange person be able to save Naruto from his bullies? And will Naruto be able to save this guy as well in return? Pairings: SasuNaru, NaruSai, SaiNaru
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters!**

Warnings: Bullying, boy x boy (yaoi), cursing, violence in later chapters.

Chapter 1.

A blonde teen run as fast as he could hoping that he wasn't going to be late today. He had forgot to set his alarm clock the night before but luckily woke up half an hour before the first class would begin. He didn't have time to make his breakfast and lunch but he didn't mind. As long as he wasn't late for the first class again. If he were to be late, he would be expelled. And he didn't want that, so no food for him today.

As he rushed through the gates, Naruto tried to ignore the glares and the huffs behind his back. He was actually growing used to this. It still pained him, but he could live with it now.

Ever since his best friend, and maybe even first love, disappeared from his life, his life at school had become almost a living hell. At first all of his classmates were nice to him because he had Sasuke around him to protect him from what he was going through now. But since he left, Naruto had no one to help him, to look after him or to cry on when he needed it.

Why did the people at school tease and bully him you ask? Naruto himself didn't know for sure but it may had to do with the simple fact that he had killed his parents. Of course not purposely, he would never do that. But when they were on a small road trip in the car when he was still a kid, Naruto started acting up and scream, making a big fuzz out of nothing, the blonde suffered anger problems ever since he was very small, causing his father to scold him and look behind him to yell at his child. Momentarily taking his eyes off of the road. But in those short crucial seconds, the car crashed against an incoming truck, killing his parents instantly.

Even though none of this was really Naruto's fault since he wasn't the one driving, people still thought of it that way. And because everyone had loved the blonde's parents, they hated Naruto for letting this happen.

As Naruto was running through the halls, he wasn't really paying attention to where he was running. Passing a corner, the blonde ran into someone causing them both to fall onto the floor, lots of papers flying down.

Naruto quickly looked up to see who he had bumped into. He silently hoped it wasn't one of those big bullies.

Ocean blue eyes met pitch black ones. Naruto didn't know the person that was crawling up to a sitting position while looking at the one who had caused him to lose his footing and send his stack of papers flying. He did know that the guy looked a lot like… him. Same colour hair, though it was shorter, the same eyes. God it seemed like he even smelled the same but that could've also been the blonde's wild imagination.

On closer inspection, he noted that the other guy was very pale and slender and also a bit taller than the person he had once loved. They didn't really look the same from up close, but from a distance…

Naruto was surprised to find the one that he had knocked over smiling. He quickly searched for words but he found none suitable for the situation. He was really expecting an outburst from the other but he didn't get it.

The blonde let out his breath he didn't know he was holding and helped the other re-stack the papers.

Naruto silently handed over the papers. The blonde tried to avoid eye contact but something about this guy made him look at him.

"Thank you," the guy in front of Naruto said while wielding that same smile. It was kind of a creepy smile, like it was a fake one.

Naruto looked right into those beady black eyes and was again surprised to what he saw. Or, what he didn't see.

Not a trace of emotion was found in those eyes. They didn't look happy, angry or even sad. Nothing. This concerned the blonde in the one second he had before the seeming emotionless guy stood up.

"Yeah, no problem I guess," the blonde mumbled as he too got to his feet. He was just about to walk along when he felt a hand grab his own. The blonde stopped and turned to look at the other who still had that smile curling up his lips.

"I believe a proper introduction is in order," he said while shaking the blonde's hand.

"What is your name?"

Naruto hesitated for a second before answering with a slight smile: "Uzumaki Naruto's the name."

"I see. My name is Sai. It's a pleasure to meet you." Again that smile.

"Just Sai?" The other nodded.

"Yes, just Sai. You should get moving though, if you do not want to be late for class," he said while looking the black and silver watch around his pale and slender wrist.

"Crap!" Naruto completely forgot about the time as he was too busy eyeing the person named Sai.

He smiled a wide, bright smile to the black- haired guy and took off running.

Sai turned to look at the running boy until he was out of sight. _What a rather interesting person_, he thought to himself. _He has a way of taking away all of your attention. I wonder if he knows that._

And with that question in mind, Sai turned on his heels and proceeded his way to his own classroom, knowing that he won't be late anyway.

While walking, Sai thought about the blonde. That person had made quite the first impression on him. Usually he couldn't care less about other people like he didn't care about anything else, except painting maybe since that was his hobby. But this boy intrigued him, he was curious to find out more about him. And so, with this weird new determent feeling he promised himself that he would find this strange boy again.

**Reviews are highly appericiated! Thank you for reading! What are your thoughts of it up until now? **


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters!**

Warnings: Bullying, boy x boy (yaoi), cursing, violence in later chapters.

Chapter 2.

After a long wait in that muffy classroom, it was finally lunchtime. Naruto's stomach had been growling loudly like an animal, really embarrassing when they had that stupid math test.

No one knew about it, but Naruto held the key to the empty art room on the highest floor of the building. He always snuck in there when no one was watching during lunch and sometimes even after school if he got bored.

Naruto sat down on a wooden chair and opened his backpack eagerly digging through it searching for his lunch. Damn it, why couldn't he find his damn lunchbox? Then it hit him. He didn't make lunch, or breakfast.

The blonde teen sighed deeply in regret as he threw his bag into one of the corners. Great, now how was he going to get through P.E class this afternoon.

Naruto scanned the room as he often did when he didn't have anything else to do. Of course he had homework but.. the word said it HOMEwork. He would do that when he got home. No, probably not actually.

The room wasn't really big but it was big enough to fit a class of twelve people. Old chairs and desks were stacked up and there were some beautiful paintings on the wall. Naruto had seen them all and each one of them had made the blonde boy breathless. Some were really good portraits which were almost like photographs. Others were cliché landscapes but that didn't take the beauty away.

The blonde then noticed something different about the room. Since he had come here in the classroom for a year every day, he knew the place even better than the teachers. But then again, this room hasn't been used for more than that year so it was only logical.

Naruto looked closer. He saw a new painting hanging on the wall near the windows. It wasn't big so anyone other than the blonde would've missed it. But a bored Naruto wouldn't miss a thing right now.

He got up and walked to the painting he had never seen before. Naruto looked at it and his breath was knocked out of his lungs at the sight of the painting. It was a drawing of a naked boy with blonde hair curled up in a foetus position. He looked like a teenager, that was for sure. But that wasn't the thing that had Naruto so interested. The boy on the painting had large white wings coming out of his back, feathers all around him. Naruto looked even closer and saw a single tear coming from the boy's eye. The drawing seemed to be very emotional. Naruto's mood changed from his normal happy state to a sad and depressed one.

Holding his breath, Naruto raised his hand and touched the painting softly on where the wings of the boy were drawn.

Being so occupied with staring at the painting, Naruto didn't notice someone coming in for the first time in a whole year. He didn't hear footsteps coming closer or the breathing that was closing in on him.

Naruto only got out of his trance when the person who had walked in spoke up.

"I see you like my work."

Naruto whirled around in shock, he hadn't expected someone. His heart was racing, afraid of the consequences of being caught here.

The blonde relaxed a bit when he saw that the person wasn't a teacher nor one of his many bullies. It was someone he had met that day. Naruto recalled his name to be.. Sai, right?

Sai stood in front of the blonde with a smile, that same one Naruto had seen on their first encounter. The blonde didn't speak but he also didn't run away like he usually would do in this kind of situation.

The smiling boy came closer to Naruto until he was standing right beside him, starring at what he claimed to be his own work.

Naruto then finally got his voice back: "You made that?"

"Yes, I did. Do you like it?" The boy didn't look away from the painting.

"Yeah, I do! It's really beautiful! I can't believe you made this, man!" This made Sai finally look at him still wearing that smile. Shivers ran down Naruto's spine when he saw the smile. Something was not right about the expression of the raven- haired boy, he just knew it.

"Thank you very much, Naruto," the artist said with a monotone voice. He turned around and sat in the wooden chair that the blonde had sat in not too long ago. He took off the schoolbag from his back and unzipped it, taking out his own lunchbox.

Naruto, who had followed every movement of the strange guy, was taken back a bit by the way the guy acted. He wasn't embarrassed about Naruto looking at his drawing but he also didn't brag about it. He watched as Sai opened his lunchbox and showed a lot of good looking dishes. Damn that looked good.

Sai looked up when he heard a weird noise coming from the direction of where the other boy was standing. Said boy looked away quickly, trying to hide the blush that flushed on his scarred cheeks.

"Could it be that you're hungry?" Naruto looked at Sai. Well, duh, of course he was. But he wouldn't want to admit that to a stranger.

"Not really," he stated as his stomach growled again.

Sai smiled and gestured him to sit down in front of him. Naruto did. He walked over to the weird boy and sat down on another wooden chair. He watched as the seemingly emotionless boy rumbled through his backpack, taking out what seemed to be a book.

Naruto almost chocked when he saw the title:

MAKING BONDS: THE STEPS TO FORMING A FRIENDSHIP

Was this some sort of joke? Naruto could barely hold in his laugh as the other boy furiously searched through the pages, eventually stopping at some point seeming to have found what he was looking for.

Sai made a short humming sound and nodded once. He then handed over his lunchbox and a pair of chopsticks to Naruto.

"You can take some of my lunch if you would like that," he said all the while smiling.

Naruto was speechless. It didn't seem like a joke anymore.  
He tilted his head a bit to the right with a questioned expression on his face as he took the chopsticks from the other.

Well, even though this was pretty weird, the blonde was still very hungry so he decided to save his question and eat before Sai would change his mind.

The two ate out of the one lunchbox in complete silence. Naruto glanced from time to time at the artist curiously, but the other never looked up once from his food.

When the lunchbox was completely empty, the blonde found it the perfect moment to ask about the weird book.

"Why do you have that book?" He said as he pointed at it, still lying on Sai's lap. Said boy looked at it before looking back at Naruto. He smiled his smile.

"Because I want to learn how to make bonds, Naruto. The title says that, it is quite obvious." Naruto's face grew red as he realised that his question was indeed kind of obvious. So he decided to question the weirdo more.

"But why do you wanna learn about it? Don't you have friends or something?" Sai shook his head to that question.

"No, I don't. But I must be honest with you, I was never really interested in forming bonds with anyone. That is until I met you this morning." The blonde blinked a few times. What had he meant with that? It wasn't strange for someone not to have friends but, to have no interest in it either was something completely new to Naruto. And it was even weirder that Sai mentioned him in his reason to learn how to form bonds.

"M-me?" Naruto stuttered, Sai smiled.

"Yes, you. After a test I had today, I went to the library to lend this book. The lady had given me a weird look when I presented it to her, but gave it to me eventually."

"But why did you lend it? And why me?" Naruto was really confused here.

"Because I decided I wanted to form a bond. With you." Naruto widened his eyes at this statement. He too wanted to have a friend of course, but this guy? He was slightly hesitant at first. Besides, could this guy change by just reading that book? As far as Naruto knew, the guy knew nothing about forming bonds or relationships with others, so was Naruto going to want to be the first?

"You can't just change to a whole new person by just reading that stupid book.." the blonde stated on which the emotionless boy looked him in the eyes.

"If people change, then so can I. Though I know, some things will never change." Naruto was taken aback by this statement. The words came out emotionless but it sounded like the boy was really eager for help.

After a short moment of hesitation, the blonde grinned a bright smile and looked at Sai.

"Then it's settled! You and me will be friends from today on forward! That's a promise!" Naruto too the other boy's hand and shoved his pinkie finger around the pinkie finger of the artist's and shook it.

Sai was astonished. His first friend. He felt a weird sensation spreading through his chest. The artist looked down at their intertwined fingers and thought about it for a short while.  
He then looked up and gave the blonde his first real smile in years.

"Yes, it is a promise."

**A bit of a slow chapter but I wanted to detail their second meeting a bit!  
Reviews are highly appreciated!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters!**

Warnings: Bullying, boy x boy (yaoi), cursing, violence in later chapters.

Chapter 3.  
  
The following days Sai had been visiting Naruto in the abandoned art room during lunch and after school. This was a whole new sensation for Sai. It was hard at first since the blonde often stole his book away.

Sai had been reading all of it at home, noting every little detail in a sketchbook inside his head, not forgetting anything he had read. He also lend different books on friendship, enemies and love. He found the last book particularly interesting. It was weird to think that people could bear such feeling for one another. Sai didn't understand anything about love. The way the book described some things in detail only made one of his eyebrow lift up all the wait to his hair. Why would one do such a thing with his private part?

The book about love described that if you have a certain tingly feeling when you're around someone and if you cannot stop thinking about that person, you are in love, and you should act on it by making lip to lip contact.

This made Sai think. He had seen many students do this act on several moments of the day, so he stated that it was not something to be done at night.

The emotionless boy had also looked in the other book, the one about friendship. He read that when people become friends, they often think of a nickname for that friend. Sai had to think about that also. This made sense. A friendly gesture towards another human was only logical.

Three days after they had met, Sai was sitting in front of the blonde named Naruto again, watching him how he happily spoke of good things that had happened to him one time when he was at Ichiraku. He had been given a free bowl because it was his 100th time coming there in a month. Sai curiously noted every single expression the boy made with his face and thought of how certain expressions could be used in different situations.

".. And that's why I'm his favourite customer! I always buy and talk a lot!"

Naruto looked at his friend. He had done nothing but smile that same creepy smile like before and he never interrupted the blonde. The blonde started to wonder why the guy smiled like he did at that very moment. So he decided to just bluntly ask him.

"Sai, why do you always smile? Cause we've been in narrow situations with the teacher and all and you never got rid of that creepy smirk. It seems.. fake."

Sai thought about his answer for a bit. Even though he knew why he was smiling the way that he did, he was looking for the right way to put it. He had read in one of his books that you should try to talk nicely to your friends instead of talking the way you would on an interview.

"That is because a smile is the best way to avoid difficult situations. Even if it's a fake one, you can still fool anyone if properly used."

The way Sai had said this simple statement made shivers go up and down Naruto's spine. This seemed to happen quite frequently with the expressionless boy around.

Naruto decided to drop it since he didn't really want to invade the guy's privacy like that. If he wanted to talk about it, he would come to Naruto on his own. But after thinking for a bit, Naruto was almost sure that that would never happen.

Sai thought of a way to express himself towards Naruto. He thought back to the book that spoke about nicknames and decided that it was time to think of one for the awkwardly loud blonde.

He looked Naruto up and down as he thought, making the other boy feeling rather uncomfortable. Sai had read that a nickname should be fitting your friend's personality or looks. He had heard many students call him 'stupid', 'idiot' and even 'monster'. Though Sai personally thought that didn't really fit the blonde. In the time he had spent with Naruto he knew that the blonde wasn't as stupid as he might have looked like. So he had to think of something else. And finally, it hit him. It was very fitting, Sai knew that the other boy would like his new nickname.

"Sai, are you even listening to me?" The artist looked up, smiled and decided to try the new nickname out right away.

"No, I must confess that I wasn't listening to your blabbering, dickless."

A moment of silent flushed over the two as a wave with Sai just sitting there, smiling and expecting a compliment and with Naruto letting his piece of bread fall out of his hands as he dropped his jaw.

"What did you say?!" Sai was taken aback by his reaction. He did it right, right? He thought of a nickname for the blonde so why was he getting dangerously close with his fist lifted up in the air.

"I said, no, I must conf-" He was cut off by a rather angry, red- faced looking blonde.

"I meant the last thing you said, weirdo!" Sai had to think back for a bit.

"Oh, you mean my new nickname for you," he smiled. "I think it is really fitting since I'm sure you don't have a d-"

"I do have one!" The blonde's face couldn't have been redder. What the hell was this guy saying?! That he didn't have a … penis? Of course he had one!

"If you believe so then go ahead." Sai smiled again at the angry idiot. No he was mistaken at first, he was now sure that Naruto liked his nickname since he was talking about it loudly.

Naruto really wanted to punch the weird guy and he almost did until he realised-

"That stupid book told you to think of a nickname, didn't it?" he grunted as he stole Sai's bag in search of the book, tending to throw it away as soon as he would find it.

"As a matter of fact it did, but I came up with it myself, dickless." Again that smile.

"But why couldn't you think of something else?! Why the hell dickless?! That's just weird!"

Sai was again thinking of a way to put his thoughts into words, the blonde in front of him getting more and more impatient as he took his time.

The blonde's eyes widened as Sai finally spoke up.

"I took this nickname because you are indeed dickless. Maybe or maybe not literally, but you sure are figuratively. And the reason beyond that statement is because every time I hear someone calling you names or see others trip you, pinch you or hit you, you do nothing in return. Only a person without a penis would never say something back, like you do every time they get to you."

**And that's his reason behind the word! No, just kidding, it's only for this story the reason, haha. Please review, it helps me motivate a lot and I'm curious to know how you think of my description of these two characters.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters!**

Warnings: Bullying, boy x boy (yaoi), cursing, violence in later chapters.

Chapter 4.

The blonde boy was completely taken aback by the words that the emotionless boy had just said to him. He just stared at the other as the words processed in his mind. Of course Naruto knew that the guy was right, he had never said anything back to all of those insults and had never punched anyone in return. But how was he supposed to react to such straightforward words? Yup, denying.

"No way! That's totally not what I do! I've beat the shit out of them before, you just didn't see it!" Sai's smile didn't fade and he just tilted his head a bit to the right in response, staying silent all the while making Naruto uncomfortable.

"Just drop it, okay?"

Sai was confused. He knew that the blonde was mad but, how did he anger him? Naruto asked why he thought of that nickname and he had said nothing but the truth. The artist decided not to go in further details and looked at his almost empty lunchbox.

A small wave of guilt washed over the blonde. He shouldn't have reacted the way he just did towards Sai. He know that the guy was completely oblivious of anything related to feelings and emotions. In the past three days Naruto had find out just the tiniest bit more about the artist. He found out that the guy never had any friends, drew a lot and never thought before he spoke. This was either extremely funny or extremely annoying. The guy had said reckless things to the bullies that were always going after Naruto and still got away with it. Naruto recalled him saying to one of them once: "Save your breath, will you? You need to blow up your date tonight." All said with that fake smile of his and in a monotone voice, which made it even funnier. That guy hadn't bothered Naruto since then.

Being with Sai was funny sometimes but he could also be nerve wrecking. He said all kinds of weird things about…Naruto's body, never thinking of how the other could react to it. Sai also drew a lot during class showing Naruto what he had learned that day from one of his books. This one time, he had gotten his hands of one of those pervy book: Icha Icha Paradise, y'know, the graphic porn book. Sai didn't know that it was something that you should keep for yourself and that it was shameful if you spoke about it, let alone draw the things you had read. Which he, of course, did.

During math class, Sai had put away that shameful book and started furiously drawing in one of his notebooks. Naruto was curious as to what he was drawing so he asked what he was doing. The emotionless boy had shown his notebook to Naruto and the blonde's eyes almost popped out. Sai had drawn two people, obviously, doing rather…nasty things to each other in a somewhat awkward and uncomfortable position. Naruto had yelled in his surprised state and jumped up from his seat, making everyone look at him.

Naruto sighted as he thought back to that very moment. He would never ask the weirdo what he was drawing during class.

The bell rung and several moments later they were back in their seats in the separate classroom. The rest of the day went by swimmingly without any awkward comments of the artist when they would pass each other in the hallways.

After the last bell had rung that noted their release of the daily torture at school, Naruto rushed to go out of the classroom which was almost empty after he had taken some time to pack things neatly in his backpack, a tick that he had gotten from Sai in the few days they had spent with each other.  
But as he was near the door, he felt a hand grab the collar of his shirt, making him fall backwards on the ground, his behind hitting the floor painfully. Naruto grunted in pain and wanted to yell at the one who had did the deed, but as he looked up and saw that he was surrounded by five rather strong and big looking guys, the words died on his lips.

An electric shock of panic and fear shot through his body as he tried to crawl up and run away, only ending up back at the floor. He heard the guys laugh and throwing insults at him. One of them lifted Naruto's head up by his blonde locks, making the eyes of the boy water.

"Just look at this pathetic idiot!"

"Why don't you just go die in a corner or something, haaah?"

"No creep to protect you now, right, monster?"

Naruto struggled, trying to get lose from the iron grip in his hair, but to no avail. The blonde yelled in pain as he felt the first blow to his jaw, making it crack dangerously. He didn't have time to check it when he felt another fist coming in touch with his body.

The poor blonde tried to hold his voice in during the beating, he really did. But eventually it hurt so badly that he couldn't stop his loud voice from releasing itself out of his mouth.  
He almost lost himself until he didn't feel any new blows anymore.

Naruto opened his closed eyes, _when had I closed them?_, and hoped that the guys had gone. But they hadn't. The blonde looked up and saw that they were all starring at one point in the classroom. Naruto followed their gaze and his eyes opened even more at the sight.

Sai was standing in the middle of the doorway wearing that fake smile of his. He wasn't doing or saying anything, but the way he just stood there silently smiling was just really creepy. The guys noticed that too and they started closing in on the emotionless boy.

One of them lifted his fist, tenting to attack him with a blow to the jaw, but just when he was about to do the deed, Sai had caught him in his action and turned the guy around, twisting his fist on his back. He pulled at the arm making the bully cry out in pain. This all had gone in such speed that the blonde had to blink twice to make sure it wasn't just his imagination.

"You shouldn't bully, that is very impolite," Sai said to the one underneath him while smiling. The others were backing away and fled the scene as quickly as they could.

The artist released the bully and he also ran out of the classroom. Sai looked down at Naruto and offered him a hand which the blonde gladly took.

"Sai.. How'd you do that?" Sai shrugged and waved his comment away.

"Another time. Let's get you home for now. We need to tend the wounds right away."

And so, the pair walked together to Naruto's small apartment. The sun was already beginning to set when the two had left the school building and it was dark when they arrived at the place.

Just as Naruto was about to say something to the emotionless boy, he was interrupted by another voice. Not coming from Sai, but coming from the shadows near the apartment door.

"Hey dobe, long time no see.."

Naruto froze.

**Cliffhanger! I bet you already know who it is though.. What did you think of this chapter? Please review!**


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